July 11: Fairbanks to Denali

To say today started out rainy would be an understatement. It poured and poured and poured. Before I even got on the coach I was drenched all the way through, as was the scooter. If it was up to me I would have waited out the rain, but I’m on someone else’s schedule so off we went to the river boat cruise. We sailed on the down the river while getting a taste of Alaska.

We stopped to watch a bush pilot do takeoffs and landings.

Saw sled dogs at work pulling a four wheeler.

And watch them play in the water. As if they weren’t wet enough.

Learned about fish wheels and drying fish.

And even saw reindeer (domesticated Caribou), all from the comforts of a covered paddlewheel boat. Funny sidenote: As the reindeer approached the water’s edge everyone gasped and ran to that side of the boat. What people didn’t realize the reindeer had purposely been let out in that area for our tour. It reminded me of the “cue the deer” scene in the movie Funny Farm.

At one point the tour stopped so we could get off and explore the Athabascan village. While they provided umbrellas, Scooter and I - along with a lot of other people - decided to stay on board.

Only when the tour was over did the rain start to lighten up. I was able to sit outside and eat a little bit of a sandwich before we had to head out on the bus to our next stop, Denali.

It was about a 2 1/2 hour ride from Fairbanks to the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. We stopped about halfway, and I probably was more interested than I had been all day when I saw where we had stopped. 

A couple years ago I had watched a documentary called Classic. It was about the small village of Nenana in Alaska who had a yearly contest where folks tried to guess the date the river thawed. It’s an interesting little movie and I’ll definitely be watching it again. Especially since today our tour stop there for a bathroom/snack break. If you haven’t watched it you should, and if you have watched it the importance of these things in the pictures will make sense. 

 

We were then back on the road to finish our ride to Denali. Here are just a couple pictures from along the way. (I fell asleep during a chunk of the trip so I might’ve missed just a few things.)

We got to the lodge and were given our packets with our room assignments and keys. Wouldn’t you know it, my room is about as far away from the main building as possible. They have complementary shuttles that run guests back and forth, and I waited for a while, but finally gave up and headed out myself.

And that’s about when I cursed whoever made the room assignments. Go down the hill and around and uphill, uphill, uphill. Oops, only stairs there. Turn around and go back down the hill, go around, and back up another hill again. Scooter doesn’t like hills, so I was having to push him up the bigger ones. 

The pink marks the crazy way I took to get to my room.

But then as soon as I opened my door, I no longer cursed the person who assigned it to me. It’s an accessible room (kind of) but it appears to be a suite. It’s huge!

Can’t get worried about that pet peeve of accessible rooms having bathtubs.

This one also has a shower. With two showerheads! And yes, I tried them both out at the same time.

And that balcony and that view! 

Most people are heading on the Denali National Park tour tomorrow, but I decided not to go and took a credit instead. Ed and I went to Denali several years ago when the entire park road was open. Have you ever had one of those experiences where it was so good you don’t want to do it again? The Denali Tour is like that for me. Especially now since a good chunk of the road is closed because of a slide. Can’t get it any better than we had it then.

Tomorrow’s another travel day onto yet another Princess Lodge. See you then!

July 10: Whittier to Anchorage to Fairbanks

Today was quite the busy day. I met for the shuttle a little after 6 AM, disembarked the ship, and was on the bus in line to go through the tunnel by 7 AM. 

 

I had a front seat all to myself, so I was able to look here there and everywhere on the ride to the airport. 

Since luggage was sent ahead of us on a truck we all had to visit the tour luggage room at the airport to pick up our bags. They only let a few people in at a time and with them checking our IDs so no one grabbed the wrong luggage it slowed things down a little bit.

Hidden in the wall by security

I had a few hours to wait at the airport but once we got in the air, all kinds of fun sites were to be seen. 

Ed this one’s for you

I wish my cell phone could pick up the different shades of blues and greens I saw throughout the flight. 

Can you guess who’s peeking out above the clouds?

And meandering rivers were abundant.

When we landed I waited for another bus to take me to the hotel, the Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge. Most people headed to the rooms, but it was too wonderful of a day to do that. So I headed out to the deck and had some lunch. 

The food wasn’t spectacular, but the views couldn’t be beat.

I have an accessible room with a shower, not a bathtub. Nice! A pet peeve of mine is when rooms considered wheelchair accessible have bathtubs.

I even have a little twin bed in here. 

Luggage will be delivered later but then it has to be out again tomorrow morning around 6AM because I’m off to a riverboat cruise before I head back towards Denali. The short land tour portion of my adventure is beginning!

View from my room

July 8: Glacier Bay

If you’ve ever thought of going on an Alaskan cruise and wondered whether Glacier Bay would be an important part of the itinerary, take a look at today’s pictures. In fact, I’ll let the pictures tell the story of the day. No words needed from me.

July 7: Skagway, Alaska

 Welcome to Skagway!

Today we were docked at the Broadway dock, a prime location for easily getting into town. Except…

I received this notification. Sorry scooter people, you can’t come and go as you please yet.

I showed up at the 10:30 AM time ready to head off the ship only to be told the gangway wouldn’t be in place until 11:00 instead. Well, the heck with that. I walked myself down the steep steps while the wheelchair and assist guys carried my scooter on down those same steep steps. And off I went.

Today’s plan was a compare/contrast day. First, compare and contrast the slide area. Guests on ships docked at the forward dock have to take a tender (water shuttle) to get to shore. No ships in today though. And no visible progress on the slide.

Today

Last year

These past two years when I’ve been here post-Covid, the town has been depressing. So many store fronts closed, shops we used to visit for sale, for rent, for lease. Looks like the town is back now. My favorite place for a patty, the Sweet Tooth Café, unfortunately is now a Diamonds International.

Before

Now

The best Thai food in Alaska at the Star Fire is now a different type of establishment.

Scooter at Starfire pre-Covid

The times they are a changing’

How is the huge rhubarb looking?

Ed’s hand in the Skagway rhubarb, July 2013

My hand in Skagway’s rhubarb today

Food and drink at the Skagway brewing company? Today’s cup of chili with focaccia bread certainly did not disappoint.

Something new and cool at the hardware store - a display of ducks passengers have dropped off. Cool. (At least I think it was the hardware store. Didn’t look at the sign but I think that’s where the hardware store used to be/still is.)

Quack quack 

We will be heading up the channel for a beautiful sail away tonight as we work our way to Glacier Bay tomorrow. See you then.